After the German conquest of France in the second world war, the Free French army drummed up recruits from its African colonies to bolster its comeback.

The Third Algerian Infantry Division fought in the Italian campaign and Operation Dragoon, and would eventually head the advance of II Corps to Stuttgart.

People

Native son PR

North African troops had fought for France as far back as the Crimean war, and west Africans from the first world war. The film's characters are fictional, but plausible. "We must wash the French flag with our blood!" cries an Algerian recruiter. "We must liberate France!" Based on that long history, these Africans think of France as their homeland – la patrie. The film's French title, Indigènes (Natives), is clever: it's a mildly offensive colonial term, but also raises the question of whether these men, who identified strongly enough with France to die for it, were true natives – the enfants de la patrie of the Marseillaise. Whereas its English-language title, Days of Glory, though also taken from the Marseillaise, sounds like a cross between a Tom Cruise movie and a Bon Jovi song. Thus not so clever.

Conflict

Tomato injustice PR

After serving as cannon fodder during the Italian campaign, the surviving troops sail for Provence. In the ship's mess, there's a nice-looking box of tomatoes. The pale-skinned north Africans help themselves but, when a darker west African picks one, the cook growls: "No tomatoes for you." Outraged, our hero – an Algerian – stomps the tomatoes into mush. Martinez explains to the captain: "They're ready to die for us, sir, but any injustice will cause mutiny." Or the lesser offence of tomato destruction. "You know the natives," sighs the captain. Martinez: "Avoid that term, sir." Captain: "The Muslims." Martinez: "That's as bad." Captain: "So what do I call them?" Martinez: "The men, sir. The men." Touché! Race-blind tomato distribution is accordingly brought to the Free French army. Yes, it's fiction.

War

The Africans are sent to help liberate Marseilles, which they do in August 1944. They are welcomed as heroes. General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, commander of the French forces there, wrote about "the unforgettable and poignant procession of all the makers of this … victory – the tirailleurs, the Moroccan Tabors, troopers, zouaves, and gunners – followed by the motley, fevered, bewildering mass of the FFI [French resistance], between the two lines of a numberless crowd, frenzied, shouting with joy and enthusiasm, whom the guardians of order could not hold back." The film illustrates this precisely.

Discrimination

Getting to know you PR

The Africans are sent north, and things go wrong again. Their white comrades get promoted, while they don't; they aren't allowed to visit their families; their love letters to Frenchwomen are censored; and, to top it all off, they're made to watch a ballet. ("What's this shit?" asks one.) Most of this is accurate enough, though the historian has been unable to confirm the bit about the ballet. Meanwhile, the Nazis drop leaflets in Arabic, telling them they will be treated well if they surrender. In real life, that wasn't guaranteed. Though there was no formal order to do so, German troops – who usually stuck with the Geneva convention when they captured British or French soldiers – occasionally massacred African prisoners of war, including up to 600 Senegalese on 9-10 June 1940 in Oise.

Politics

Dying for a dream PR

The pensions of African veterans were frozen in the late 1950s when their colonies became independent, while those of French nationals continued to rise with inflation. By 2006, this meant Africans were getting less than one-tenth of what the Frenchmen who had fought alongside them were paid. After a screening of Days of Glory, Jacques Chirac, then president of France, was apparently moved to even up the pensions. If director Rachid Bouchareb is looking for another project, perhaps he could do the story of the Gurkhas in the British army next.

Verdict

There are a few Hollywood touches, but mostly these just serve to make Days of Glory entertaining. It's also informative, and important.